Somatic Lessons: Narrating Patienthood and Illness in Indian Medical Literature

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This book has been in the works for a long time. All the while, I have acquired many debts, and I am happy to begin to repay them here by thanking those people and institutions that helped me in the process of researching, writing, and editing this book. To begin, I want to thank two very important people without whom this book would never have seen the light of day. First, I am tremendously grateful to my teacher, mentor, and friend, Wendy Doniger. With dogged commitment and enthusiasm, she has directed, cheered on, corrected, inspired, and assisted my work on this project in its numerous incarnations. Wendy’s unfaltering and incomparable guidance, towering yet reasonable intellectual expectations, and friendship over the years have made my studies of Sanskrit literature, South Asian religions, and storytelling both possible and exhilarating. Next, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Dominik Wujastyk. Always a source of sound counsel and incisive analysis, Dominik’s excellent work on the history of medicine in India and Sanskrit medical literature is the touchstone for my own work in the field of Indian medical history. It is difficult to imagine how I can ever repay the generosity of intellect, time, and spirit I owe to these two people. For their advice, generosity, and patience over the years, I am grateful to the following people as well. Tracy Pintchman, my ådiguru, moved me with her vast knowledge of South Asian religions while I was a young, somewhat adrift college student. She was then and continues to be an important role model for me as a teacher and scholar. Matthew Kapstein’s keen insight and direction in the early stages of my work on the history of medicine and religions in India helped me to articulate and sustain the central argument of this book. I am enormously grateful to Kunal and Shubhra Chakrabarti, who have always opened their home to me whenever I am in Delhi. Kunal’s xi xii Acknowledgments advice about the mythology of Jåtahåriṇ¥, discussed in Chapter 4, while I was a grad student at the University of Chicago, was instrumental in the development of this project. I would also like to thank Dr. S. K. Shukla, at Jawaharlal Nehru University, who sat with me for hours every day during the searing Delhi summer of 2005, wading through some of the knottier parts of ≈nandaråya’s nåṭaka, which I discuss in Chapter 6. Several people helped me in the process of doing the research that went into this book. In Thiruvananthapuram, I would like to thank P. J. Cherian of the Kerala Council for Historical Research and my Malayalam teacher, Dr. V. K. Bindu of Kerala University. Additionally , I extend a most emphatic thank you to everyone at Valloor Mana and Ullanoor Mana: Shankaran Namboothiri, Brahmadathan Namboothiri, Vimala Antarjanam, Dr. Madhu K. P., Dr. Vijith Sasidhar , Dr. Sreejith K. J., and Parvathy U. M. T. The importance of their hospitality, instruction, and friendship over the years is beyond measure . Moreover, I owe a great deal of thanks to Tsutomu Yamashita, my colleague and friend from Kyoto who introduced me to everyone at Valloor Mana and Ullanoor Mana and who inspired me with his interest in the history and practice of medicine in Kerala. Special thanks are also owed to a few of the people who helped me gather materials for this book. In particular, I am grateful to P. L. Shaji of the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscript Library at Kerala University; without his generosity of time and energy in obtaining Malayalam and Sanskrit manuscripts this project would never have taken off. P. Ram Manohar of the AVT Institute for Advanced Research in Coimbatore not only was integral in helping me to gather materials, especially an important, early edition of the J¥vånandanam, but he also instilled in me an appreciation for learning to read and understand the medical literature on its own terms, as the compilers of the texts suggest the literature should be read and understood. I thank Philipp Maas for leading me to the terrific artwork that is on the cover of this book. And finally, I would like to thank Dan Mulvey of the Warren Hunting Smith Library at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who tracked down countless resources for me over the past two years. I am thankful to the many people who helped me revise and prepare this book for publication. Kenneth G. Zysk read...